The Chef and the Barman Should Be Friends

You don’t go to Alphabet City after midnight expecting to find sophisticated food and drink in a grown-up setting. You especially don’t go looking for them served together on a wooden plank. But that is what you get at the effortlessly cool Beagle, where a section of the menu is devoted to the pairing of mini-cocktails and small plates. If you have your doubts about the compatibility of such things, try the superb roasted-lamb-neck-and-Preakness-cocktail combo, and consider whom we saw hobnobbing among a rabble of industry types one recent weeknight: Blue Hill’s Dan Barber and PDT’s Jim Meehan (162 Ave. A, nr. 10th St.; 212-228-6900).